Omar Abdullah aligns with Kashmiri sentiment

Omar Abdullah says that the centre was “selective” in avenging attacks on symbols of democracy and backs the claim that the legal process in Afzal Guru’s case was “flawed”.

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday suggested that the Centre was "selective" in avenging attacks on symbols of democracy and backed the allegation that the legal process in the Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru's case was "flawed".

"When it is said that Parliament attack was an attack on a symbol of democracy, I have no objection. But there are others who have been sentenced to death. They are also implicated in attacks on democracy. Is chief minister of a state not a symbol of democracy? Is a former prime minister not a symbol of democracy? Of course, he is," he said referring to the death row convicts in the cases of assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.

The chief minister also said the government jumped the queue in Afzal's case. "These questions need answers," Abdullah told a private television channel.

Omar, who is under pressure to ward off the attempts by separatists to exploit the issue, aligned himself with the Kashmiri sentiment against Afzal's hanging. Omar said he would have preferred that Afzal was not hanged as there was a feeling that his trial was a flawed one. Slamming the execution of Afzal, an angry chief minister said this would reinforce a sense of alienation and injustice among youth in the Valley.

"Long-term implications of Guru's hanging are far more worrying. The new generation of youth in Kashmir may not identify with Maqbool Bhatt who was hanged in 1984, but they will identify with Afzal. Please understand that there is more than one generation of Kashmiris that has come to see themselves as victims, that has come to see themselves as category of people who do not receive justice. Whether you like it or not, the execution of Afzal has reinforced that point that there is no justice for them and that, to my mind, is far more disturbing and worrying than the shortterm implications on the security front. How will we correct or address that sense of injustice and alienation is a question that I do not have answers," Omar said.

He said the words used in the Supreme Court judgment are difficult to explain. "The Supreme Court judgment talks about satisfying collective conscience. You don't hang someone to satisfy collective conscience but to satisfy legal requirements," Omar Abdullah said.

He said the "biggest tragedy" of the execution was that he was not allowed to meet his family before he was hanged. "As a human, I simply cannot reconcile to the fact that he was not allowed to see his family for a final farewell and his body has not been handed over to the family. I will ask the Centre to hand over Afzal's body to his family and bring it to the Valley.

Questioning the Centre's decision to inform Afzal Guru's family through speed-post, Omar said: "There is something wrong in the system if we are sending information through speed-post in this era. I do not know if the family got that letter or not. We could have easily got the family to meet Afzal in Delhi before his execution."